Food
I wrote at https://twittertales.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/new-years-resolution-in-another-month/ about my plan to eat for maximum digestive health for four weeks, as naturally and gently as I could (today is day 5). Since I’ve been reading about pregnant-lady foods, I know herbs can be pretty intense. So I’m not taking any, except actually in food (so it’s LIKE a detox program, but without stripping my stomach of nutrients or causing me to fall down). I confess I am taking folate, and vitamin C (to try to absorb iron, which appears to be working better than iron tablets). But mostly, I’m just eating good food.
It’s a shock to the system.
I’ve had a theory for a while that I eat so much chocolate that it’s become a vital part of my digestive system. I haven’t had any chocolate since last Monday – no caffeine at all, actually – so I have the usual headache (fading now, as usual after a few days).
I just finished a plate of celery, red capsicum and hommus for morning tea (instead of, say, a family size pack of maltesers), so it’s natural that my body is a bit freaked out. I think the internal cogs creak and clash for a week or two (based on “the all-bran challenge” ads) before they remember how the system is actually meant to work. So I feel sick after eating almost every meal. But I do have moments of glowing virtue every so often, so that bodes well for the future. I think the easiest thing to do, which also has the greatest physiological response, is to drink a glass of water before breakfast (especially if it’s warm, with a squeeze of lemon). Sometimes drinking that water makes me feel as if someone’s just kicked me in the stomach, which I believe is because my gut needs something to get it working, and is shocked when that something isn’t chocolate. I assume that once the digestive system is actually working, the pain will stop. It’s actually really cool that ordinary food is having such a big effect, because it shows how easy it is to seriously improve my health (after the initial fortnight, anyway).
I’m still really bloated, which I figure is also a “What?!? You’re feeding me REAL FOOD? Arg!” from my belly. I’ll let you know how things change over the next three weeks!
Yo
It’s now been over thirteen months since I sent “Stormhunter” to Publisher B. I wonder sometimes if they’ll ever reply. Oh well. I have other books at Publisher A, E and F anyway.
I’m eating WAY too much, but I am still confident that in a few days I’ll be back on the wagon, and I will reach my goal of 76.5 in the next three and a half weeks. I still exercise six days a week.
Today I’m going to start reading “The Gay Dolphin Adventure” and a Trixie Belden book (same era, as you may have guessed). How wonderful and terrifying.
Are you a writer? You could enter this free competition and help raise money for The Lupus Alliance.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/05/30/fanfic-contest/
This is the third time I’ve posted that picture on a blog. I also have it as my desktop. I’m in the process of editing my story, and everyone on my “Felicitations” list will read the result at the beginning of July (I send the list a free flash story each month – if you want in, email me on fellissimo[at]hotmail[dot]com).
And. . . *scene*
I made it! I’m under 78 kilos (77.9 to be precise). I’ve lost over five kilos altogether, so that’s proof that I can still lose weight (despite being married, which makes life easier and weight loss harder). Dieting has a huge effect on my ability to function, though – particularly on my writing and my socialising. But I’ve discovered that it doesn’t particularly effect my tutoring ability, which means I can eat healthily every Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday without causing problems.
I have utterly lost it today – I’ve been awake about an hour and eaten a ridiculous amount of chocolate already – but oh well. In the next four weeks, I plan to get down to 76.5, which will be genuinely in the healthy weight range. There shall be some fluctuation in the meantime.
CJ is a public servant, which means all kinds of wonderful things – steady pay, excellent sick leave (he’s actually allowed to come home and look after me if I’m sick), automatic life insurance, flex time (if you work longer than the required seven and a half hours, you can then take days off *squee*), and so on. Today he’s applying for a better position in the same department, and it’s tremendously exciting for both of us. It’s a job that’s better suited to who he is, AND better paid. Wish us luck. We’ll find out if he gets the job in a month or so.
Backwards
Yep, my weight is up again. By half a kilo since Friday morning. But half a kilo is in the “well okay, I did eat some chocolate, I admit” range, which is also the “I can deal with that both psychologically and physically” range. I’ll weigh myself every day until I reach 78 kilos.
I seem to have accidentally fixed our clock table, which is fabulous (and it only took me six months). Which is just a little magical, because I thought last night that I’d irreperably damaged it, but it turned out I’d done exactly the right thing. I also dusted today, which might not sound impressive but it is. There are two possible responses:
1. Dusting? Well of course! How could you not?
2. Dusting? What’s that?
The house looks great, and at the moment that’s symbolic of the whole world. This married-but-no-kids part of life is the most peaceful part (other than possibly old age), and when my house is tidy I feel safe (something I don’t feel very often). My mind may still be structured like this after CJ and I have kids – it’ll just be a different definition of “tidy”. For example:
1. Only one pile of vomit and/or blood to clean up today, hurrah!
2. The nappy smell is only noticeable for two blocks instead of three, hurrah!
3. I already showered this month, so now I can skip it until next time I turn over the calender.
4. Nothin’s on fire, and the rats are restricted to the kids’ room now, hurrah!
Sunny Daze
The sun is out, the house is clean, and I’m going to do a mid-week weigh-in tomorrow (to find out if being good today and yesterday has made up for a birthday party on Friday). On Friday morning I weighed 78.6 kilos. Next Friday’s goal is to weigh 78, which should be easily possible.
On Wednesday Publisher A rejected “Farting My ABCs”. That was stunningly fast, so much so that I doubt they read more than the synopsis (which means they rejected farting, not my writing). This doesn’t bode super well for my relationship with that publisher, so I won’t send them anything until Publisher B responds to “Stormhunter” and “The Monster Apprentice”.
I was taken by surprise, so I decided to send “Farting My ABCs” out again immediately (I doubt my ability to edit has improved noticeably in the last fortnight), and by email (fast and easy). So I sent it to yet another publisher, who I’ll call Publisher F. Publisher F is extremely consistent in their three-month response time, so that’s a kind of treat. Thus I have five books “out” at the moment, with four publishers. That’s a good spread, particularly with a competition in the mix (which may also get me back into Publisher A’s good graces – if I’m truly out of them).
I was just given two new students, so my schedule is now stable (as stable as it gets) at just over eleven hours a week. My maximum regular workload is twelve hours, so I’m leaving it alone.
I went to church this morning, and didn’t have a panic attack. That was nice.
Today is a good day.
Two-thirds (sorta)
I’m on limited return (to the world of the living) at present. Cautiously okay. Mainly because this morning I’m back at 79 kilos (which is where I was last Friday, but is still technically ahead of the one-kilo-a-week schedule). So another nine days of pain (and Friday’s the biggest birthday of all, so that may hurt a LOT), but there’s a good chance I’ll actually get lower than my 78-kilo goal. Which means there’s plenty more pain coming, but it’s back to being useful pain. I can handle almost anything when it’s meaningful. (But I’ll still stay home and quiet as much as possible.)
Also, the sun is back. That makes a huge difference. And one of my stories is getting professionally paid to appear in the next “Going Down Swinging” magazine (in episode # 30, which is getting launched at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival in September).
So in some ways this is a good week.
Halfway
And what did YOU do on the weekend?
If you’d like to see many more octopus photos (and who wouldn’t?), you may enjoy the facebook group I set up exactly for that reason (I’m posting something every day for the next little while). http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120950664610493
There’s video at http://twittertales.wordpress.com already.
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At 4pm today I’ll be halfway through the three weeks of pain.
Only one problem. Bizarrely, my body has gained a kilo and a half since Friday. Since that weigh-in, the bad stuff I’ve eaten was only a sesame bar (basically my only option for lunch that day), 30 grams of chocolate, and two pieces of cake (one on Friday, one on Sunday). Even if I’d eaten all that in a single day, that’s still not THAT much. It’s not a freakish one-off weigh-in either, because I’ve increased dramatically every day for three days.
I generally express my anger by eating chocolate. But I’m not going to do that. The next best thing is to withdraw completely from society.
So, bye. Don’t call me.
Life as a National Geographic spread
I walked into the living room yesterday and glanced at the fish to discover Sherlock eating something that turned out to be half of one of the neon tetras.
“What do they eat when they can’t get hobbit?” – LOTR quote.
It’s pretty disturbing to see one pet kill and eat another pet. But it’s about as natural as a fish tank can get. He hasn’t eaten another one yet (I imagine he’s still rather full) but I’ll be keeping a close eye on developments. I may make a decision to separate him (at least until he gets better at eating his own food – which, ironically, the neon tetras have been eating).
So much for fish tanks being peaceful.
nearly one-quarter done
I’m still light-headed with hunger, but cautiously optimistic. I weigh 79.9 kilos, which means I’m losing weight rapidly (for now).
Yesterday (which included making cake for a friend but a last-minute decision not to eat any of it) actually worked, to my enormous surprise. I’m also here http://www.brianagincourtmassey.com/winnerspage10.html due to winning third place with my realist novel (the only one that uses the name “Felicity Bloomfield”) and a bunch of friends and I went and danced in a supermarket last night (and filmed it for the http://twittertales.wordpress.com blog for tomorrow). That renewed my enthusiasm for life and awesomeness (which was very low due to lack of chocolate).
Today is day five of the current weight-loss saga. Sometime tomorrow I’ll be one-quarter done.
More than ten percent done, but less than one-seventh
Today is day three. It’s 5pm and I’m not letting myself have dinner for another hour and a half.
I’m cold, shaky on my feet, my stomach won’t stop rumbling, and I’m angry. Very angry.
After today is done, there’s still eighteen days of pain to go.
For the record, today I’ve eaten cereal (Nut Feast), a few salted nuts, some grapes, an avocado ham and cheese sandwich, and two corn thins with avocado. I intend to eat a mandarin, some baked sweet potato, and a ham and mushroom souffle before the day is done, plus maybe some more nuts or a glass of milk.
The first week of a diet is the hardest, but generally it’s also the most numerically rewarding.
It had better be.
Felicity Banks 